Military hospital successfully performs first lung transplant in Vietnam

ABO/NDO – The first lung transplant in Vietnam has been successfully performed at the Military Hospital 108, on a male patient with respiratory failure due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Doctors at the Military Hospital 108 perform the first lung transplant from a brain-dead donor in Vietnam. (Photo courtesy to the Military Hospital 108).

At a press brief to announce the success of the operation, in Hanoi on March 16 morning, the hospital stated that, using the organs donated by a brain-dead donor, the Hanoi-based medical facility has also implemented trans-national organ transplants.

The heart and kidney were used as transplants for patients at Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, who suffered from end-stage heart and renal failure. Another patient underwent a cornea transplant at Hanoi’s National Hospital of Ophthalmology.

At the Military Hospital 108, doctors performed a transplantation of two lungs on a patient, a kidney transplant for the other and also a cornea transplant.

Regarding the first lung transplant, the surgery was directed by the hospital’s Director, Prof., Dr. Mai Hong Bang. Two foreign experts from France and Belgium, along with 60 medical staff from the hospital, directly performed the eight-hour surgery.

Since the establishment of its Transplant Centre, the hospital has sent its staff to the leading organ transplant centres in the country and around the world in order to improve their profession. It has also actively encouraged patients in Hanoi and neighbouring provinces to donate organs.

To date, the hospital has performed 18 organ transplants, including one liver transplant from a live donor. Since 2004, it has also carried out 27 marrow and 14 corneal transplants and the hospital is also preparing all of its resources and facilities for the implementation of complex organ transplantation techniques, such as cardiac, cardiopulmonary, pancreatic, uterus, limb and intestinal transplantations.

(Source: VNA)